Optimal Path Planning for USV-AUV Docking under Various Marine Environmental Conditions
Daegil Park, Seungyeon Lee, Junwoo Park, Hyungwoo Kim, Bong Huan Jun
Abstract
The escalating demand for precision in maritime missions has led to the development of collaborative heterogeneous multi-robot systems, specifically pairing Autonomous Surface Vehicles (USVs) with Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). Autonomous docking is essential for mission persistence, allowing AUVs to use USVs for recharging and data offloading, yet achieving reliable docking is difficult because these underactuated platforms are highly susceptible to wind and current disturbances. This paper introduces a specialized simulation framework utilizing a MATLAB-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) and 6-DOF equations of motion to evaluate docking success rates in real-time by analyzing measured environmental vectors. Through a scoring framework incorporating the Continuous Ranked Probability Score (CRPS), the system identifies optimal docking headings where environmental forces are minimized or exhibit a force-offsetting effect. To ensure kinematic feasibility, the trajectory planning logic integrates minimum turning radii of USV and AUV, while temporal synchronization is maintained via Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) calculations at each waypoint. The proposed algorithm was implemented in C++ within the ROS2 framework and validated through stationary and collaborative docking scenarios under stochastic loads. Experimental results confirm that aligning the docking axis with optimized directions allows for stable docking performance.